


Road Again

by destroyerofhearts



Series: The Butterfly 'Verse [2]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Complicated Relationships, Everyone Is Gay, Multi, Parallel Universes, Post-Break Up, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25424335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destroyerofhearts/pseuds/destroyerofhearts
Summary: "...Chaos theory. The butterfly effect. One tiny, inconsequential decision that sets off an entirely different chain of events. He and I made one different decision in each of our lives, and now…” Patrick trailed off.“Now what?” Rachel asked“Now I’m here,” he said, turning back to her. “Why am I here?”Or, an AU where Patrick from the Schitt's Creek!Universe ends up in a parallel world where he never made it to Schitt's Creek.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer & Rachel, Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Series: The Butterfly 'Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552405
Comments: 34
Kudos: 69





	1. Not In Love

**Author's Note:**

> Oh hi! This is part of a companion piece to the 'butterflies ain't got nothing on us' work. you don't have to read that before reading this though - they can be read separately.
> 
> big thanks to you all for your patience on my other fic - my plans to update were thrown out the window with work going insane on me. glad to have time now to write again! 
> 
> important note - this is purely going to show Patrick and Rachel as friends. yes, there are references to their previous relationship but this isn't a fic where I put them back together as a couple. anyway. you'll see.

_ “And we were lovers, now we can’t be friends, fascination ends, here we go again.”  _

Not In Love, Crystal Castles

Patrick woke up to the unfamiliar sounds of traffic that he hadn’t heard since the days he lived in Toronto. And when he blinked his eyes open, it was to an unfamiliar ceiling, in an unfamiliar flat. And the left side of the bed was empty.

“David?” He called out, uncertain of what was going on. Did they go out last night, or have a little too much to drink? Why doesn’t he remember anything? And where the hell was David?

“David!” Patrick called out again, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Where the hell was he? 

He grabbed his phone off the side table and quickly unlocked it, opening his maps app to see his location and work out how to get home. It slowly loaded, and then…

No.

That can’t be right.

What the fuck was he doing in Halifax? How did he get almost halfway across the bloody country overnight? What the hell was going on? 

“What the…” he started, but was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

Maybe it was David? But nothing made sense - how would they both have even gotten here in a night without getting on a plane? Surely that’s something you remember - and don’t do under the influence… 

He padded across the room to the front door, quickly making work of the lock and opening the door to find…Rachel?

“Patrick,” she sighed, flinging her arms around him in a hug.

Patrick froze. Was this some kind of weird dream? Why was Rachel here, and where the hell was David?!

“Rachel, what are you doing here?” He asked, gently prying her off of him. 

“I texted you last night, and I…I’m here to surprise you, really, so - surprise!” 

“You texted?”

“Yes, and you replied,” she said, looking confused. “Are you okay? You look a bit pale.”

Patrick swallowed. “I don’t know what’s going on and I - I think I need to sit down.”

He quickly moved to the small dining area and sat down, resting his head in his hands. This had to be some crazy hallucination, because none of this could possibly be real or even happening.

He could hear Rachel shut the front door behind her and her walking to the kitchenette. A second later, a tap turned on and off, and he felt the chair next to him being pulled out and something being placed on the table.

Patrick looked up. In front of him was a glass of water, and next to him was Rachel. So this was definitely real, then.

“Are you okay?”

“I think I’m going insane. Which is funny, usually I’m the grounded guy in our relationship.”

“We’re not in a relationship,” Rachel said slowly.

“Oh, I know. I meant with David.”

“What?” She squeaked, and that’s when Patrick realised. She didn’t know. If this was Rachel, at least the Rachel he knew, she would know that he was in a relationship with David. And that he was gay. Why didn’t she know?

“I’m in a relationship. With a man. David Rose,” he told her.

“That business mogul’s kid?”

“Yeah. Him,” Patrick started, rising to his feet. He began to pace around the room. “I - I don’t know what’s going on and I have no idea how the hell I got to Nova Scotia of all places but I live in a town called Schitt’s Creek and I work at a business there, Rose Apothecary, and you should know that we’re together because you came and, and visited me there last year, in September.”

At that, Rachel stood up and came towards him. “Patrick, we were still together last year in September.” 

“Not possible, I was in Schitt’s Creek months before then.”

“You’ve never lived in a Schitt’s Creek, as far as I’m aware. And I know you pretty well.”

Okay. Patrick was panicking now. He was panicking and trying to hold it together and not have some sort of freak breakdown or run away or do something stupid. But it was hard.

Rachel came towards him and gently placed her hand on his arm. “Maybe, it was just a bad dream,” she said.

Patrick knew she meant well, that she meant to console him. But it didn’t stop it from hurting.

“I’m sorry, did you just call the best few years of my life a ‘bad dream’? I was happy, Rachel! I’d finally worked out who I was and why I spent the formative years of my life feeling miserable with you, okay?”

Rachel recoiled, removing her hand like she’d been burned. “I can’t believe you’d take such a cheap shot at me, Brewer! What the hell.” 

Patrick hung his head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Rachel moved away, heading for the door.“I can’t believe I came all this way to-“

“Wait,” Patrick called out.

Rachel stopped in her tracks and turned around.

“You really didn’t know about David and me?”

She shook her head.

“And we…we were really together last year?”

“Yeah.”

Patrick nodded his head, thinking. It was probably crazy. But maybe it _was_ the only answer. 

“You’re not gonna believe me. But I don’t think this is my life.”

Rachel pursed her lips. “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. You’re Patrick, right? I mean, you look and sound exactly like my ex.”

“Yeah. And some of the story is right but…I think somehow, you know a different version of me.” 

“I’m not following.”

Patrick dashed over to his computer. “It’s like those time travel films,” He said, typing words into the search bar. “I haven’t travelled in time, but there’s two versions of me, and maybe we were the same up to a point and somehow, one small thing along the way was different and the Patrick you know didn’t end up in Schitt’s Creek, like me.”

He turned to Rachel, who was wearing an expression he couldn’t read. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

She folded her arms. “When did we first get together?”

“Valentine’s Day in the 11th grade…what-” Patrick started but he was cut off.

“First time we broke up?”

“Sophomore year of college.”

“Where did we go on our mini break the winter after we graduated college?”

Patrick racked his brain. “We went skiing in Banff.”

“And when and where did you propose to me?” 

“Three years ago in Chicago.”

She gasped. “Everything was right, up until then. You…well, the other you proposed to me two years ago.”

Patrick turned his head back to the computer. “Around the time I left to go to Schitt’s Creek,” he murmured. 

He glanced back at the web page. “Yeah, this is what I was thinking of. Chaos theory. The butterfly effect. One tiny, inconsequential decision that sets off an entirely different chain of events. He and I made one different decision in each of our lives, and now…” he trailed off.

“Now what?”

“Now I’m here,” he said, turning back to her. “Why am I here?”

Rachel shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Asides from last night’s texts, I haven’t spoken to you since you moved here for your job.”

“Oh, shoot! I have a job, that I should probably be getting to,” Patrick realised. “Just…you okay to stay here for the day? And then we’ll work out what to do when I get back.”

Patrick rushed to the wardrobe, grabbing a shirt and pants to change into, and quickly rushed into the bathroom.

“Why don’t you call in sick?”

“Who? Who do I call? I don’t even know who I work for!” Patrick exclaimed through the bathroom door. 

“Just a suggestion, no need to be so defensive,” Rachel countered. 

Patrick sighed. The last thing he needed was some fight with his ex - and the only person he knew in this place. 

When he came out, Rachel handed him a letter. “Here. I think this is who you work for.”

“Great, thanks. I’ll be back soon.”

He grabbed his phone, keys and wallet and rushed out the door. 

—-

Patrick’s job was awful.

Well, that was a bit of a stretch. It was fine, really, but he hated it. He missed Rose Apothecary, missed greeting the townspeople who walked through the door and watching David’s antics. 

Instead he was working in some accounting firm in a cubicle with bland, grey walls. His other self hadn’t decorated his desk. It was as empty as he felt right now, trying to do the work. 

He barely interacted with the coworkers, and they didn’t seem interested in talking to him. He ate his lunch alone, also in the cubicle, racking his brain about what the hell he could do to get back. This couldn’t be his life. It was more bleak than it had been even before he found himself in Schitt’s Creek.

His other self must be so lonely, he mused. And that made him sad, knowing that there was another him, somehow, that had never gone to Schitt’s Creek and never met David and never had his life changed for the better. 

And in that moment, he knew what he had to do to get back. Maybe it was crazy and it wouldn’t work. But it was worth a shot. 

—

“How was your-“

“Terrible,” Patrick said, cutting Rachel off when he walked into his apartment that evening. “Really, really awful. Why the hell did he pick accounting in Halifax of all places?”

“Beats me,” she said. “So, what’s the plan? How are we going to get you back and the other Patrick, er, back?”

Patrick threw his things down on the table and headed for the wardrobe again. “You’ve got an overnight bag on you, right?”

“I do, but-“

“Good. I know what we have to do to fix this, and we need to go.” Patrick found a small bag and threw in a few changes of clothing.

Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. “Go where?”

“Schitt’s Creek.” 


	2. Road Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! i am back. sort of. life is very overwhelming at the moment, but this is a nice and much needed escape.
> 
> i hope you enjoy this angsty chapter? things will be getting better in the latter half of this work, I assure you. appreciate your patience! x

_“And I’ve been there before, but I don’t know the way to go home.”_

Road Again, Noah Reid

Rachel’s jaw had dropped. “I - Schitt’s Creek? That’s a long way from here, Patrick.”

“I know. But maybe - this is crazy but maybe the way to get back is by going there? Maybe that’s the decision this Patrick didn’t make and I need to make it now for him and set it right?”

“Maybe…"

“You have a car, right?”

“Yes, but you can’t be serious,” she said. “Getting to Ontario from here - it’s a long trip.”

“You did it to get here.”

Rachel gaped but didn’t reply. 

“Please, Rach. To get your Patrick back, we at least have to try.”

She sighed. “Fine. But you can drive.”

“Done. Go get the car ready, we can pick up some food on the way. I’ll be ten minutes.”

Rachel nodded and headed out the door. 

Patrick threw in a few familiar clothes into a duffle bag, enough to last a few days, then grabbed his wallet and keys. And then, as a quick afterthought, he grabbed his guitar that sitting in the small living area and placed it in its case and carried it out the door with the rest of his stuff.

When he got to Rachel’s car, she raised an eyebrow. “You’re not seriously bringing the guitar.”

“Seriously.”

“Patrick,” Rachel said, folding her arms. “I know you like to run away when something’s gone wrong, but I don’t know if this is the right thing…”

“I’m not running away. I’m running back to Schitt’s Creek, and to David! It was the best decision I ever made back in my own...universe, so why wouldn’t it be a good decision in this one?”

“David doesn’t even know you exist! What are you gonna do, rock up on his doorstep and proclaim your love for a man who doesn’t know who you are?”

When she said it like that, it sounded truly mad.

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?”

Rachel didn’t say anything, but he knew what she was thinking. Staying here wasn’t possible. Rekindling their relationship was definitely not an option. And he was itching to get far, far away from here. 

Patrick put his stuff in the trunk of the car and wordlessly made his way around to the passenger side. Rachel got in the driver’s seat, turned the key in the engine and got her GPS working. 

“Where to?”

“Let’s just drive and we’ll find somewhere to stop along the way.”

—-

Meaningless pop played through the car speakers and the sun disappeared over the horizon. 

Patrick knew what David would say if he was here. Well, for a start he’d be playing his own curated playlist of music instead of listening to the radio. And then he’d-

“Hey, do you wanna look up some possible motel options for us to stay in?” Rachel asked, interrupting Patrick’s train of thought.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, pulling out his phone and googling accommodation options for further down the highway. 

He’d found a couple of options for them to stay in when she piped up again. “So, what am I like?”

“What do you mean?”

She side-eyed him. “You know. The ‘other’ me. What’s she - me - like?”

Patrick thought about this carefully. “She’s exactly like you. I mean, this morning when you rocked up I would never have guessed it wasn’t the version of you that I know.”

“Okay…but you’re not in a relationship with each other, right?”

Now he was starting to get a little irritated. “No, as I said, I’m with David now.”

She hummed. “Okay. So, do _we_ talk, or do we hate each other, or…” she trailed off with a light laugh.

Patrick frowned. “…We don’t talk, actually. I don’t hate her, of course not, but I haven’t spoken to her since…well.”

“Oh.”

The car fell silent for the next hour until they decided to get food and stop for the night.

—-

Checking into a motel that wasn’t the Rosebud Motel made Patrick feel almost…homesick. No, he’d never lived in the motel as the Rose’s had, but he associated them, and David, with the charming yet slightly rundown rooms they lived in. It felt off to be staying somewhere that felt familiar in all the wrong ways. 

He really missed David’s affection and his sarcastic remarks. He missed all the Rose’s actually, and Stevie who he knew would have something good to say about all this.

He missed home.

“You okay?” Rachel asked Patrick, who was staring around the motel room listlessly.

“I don’t know. I’m kinda homesick, actually.”

“We could always go visit your parents on the way through…?”

Patrick shook his head. There was too much at stake here, and he didn’t want to mess around with the other Patrick’s life too much. 

Besides, home was Schitt’s Creek now. He just needed to get there. 

“They live in a motel, so…” Patrick shrugged.

“Who?”

“David. And his family. That’s what happened when they lost all their money. They moved to Schitt’s Creek, and they live in a motel.”

“Oh…okay,” Rachel said quietly, moving over to her own bed and grabbing out things from her bag. 

“It’s where I last saw you, actually,” he mused out loud. Rachel looked up, bemused.

“Me?”

“Well yeah, the other you. I’d done another runner, and eventually, you came after me. You were staying in the motel, and you’d befriended David’s sister Alexis. Actually, maybe she’d befriended you. Anyway, she brought you to the family barbecue the Rose’s were throwing. And then…”

“What?”

“The truth came out about us, having been engaged but then not engaged but you still trying to contact me, and David was upset, and then I told you I was…gay.”

Rachel blinked. 

“Then you left town and I hadn’t spoken to you since,” he finished, fiddling with his bag in an attempt to avoid eye contact. 

The room was silent for a moment, then Rachel piped up. 

“I’ll take the shower first if that’s alright with you?”

“Yeah, go right ahead.”

She picked up her clothes and toiletries and made for the bathroom door, but stopped, turning around to gaze curiously at him.

“It’s weird, Patrick.”

“What is?”

“You’re the same as you’ve always been but…it’s like you’re a stranger.”

With that, she closed the door behind her and left Patrick to mull over the day. 

—-

Patrick’s alarm went off promptly the next morning, and as he got up he could hear Rachel grumble next to him and bury herself further into her pillow. He got up, changing into a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers and wandered out of the motel. The fresh air was desperately needed, he thought as he breathed deeply after being stuck in a stuffy motel room all night. And with that, he walked down the road to see what else was around this part of the country. Besides, there was nothing quite like a bit of exercise to clear the head.

When he returned, Rachel was up and dressed, throwing what little things she pulled out of her bag back into it. “You gonna be ready in a half-hour?” She asked.

“Yep.”

They packed their things and had a small breakfast in silence. Patrick felt as though he’d done something wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what he’d done. All he wanted was to get through this with minimal fuss. 

They headed out to the car and Rachel tossed him the keys. “Your turn to drive,” she said flatly, throwing her bag in the trunk and then heading to the reception to pay for their overnight stay.

“A ‘please’ would’ve been nice,” Patrick mumbled to himself but knew that right now wasn’t the time to be picking a fight.

When she got back, she slammed the door closed after hopping into the passenger seat, immediately turning herself away from Patrick. 

“What?” Patrick asked.

“Nothing, let’s just go.”

“It’s clearly something. Did I do something? What did I do?”

She sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

Patrick steeled himself and turned on the engine, knowing that he wasn’t going to get a better answer out of her. “Look, I promise you that I’m doing everything I can to fix this. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get your Patrick back, okay?”

Rachel looked away, and said quietly to herself, “then why do I feel like he’s not going to be my Patrick when he returns?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! would love to hear what you think - comments & kudos do help to give me a kick up the butt into actually writing!


End file.
